FOUR

"Pierre, sweetheart, do you need a hug?"

Sakura Aoki spoke in a soft and caring voice as she made her way towards the Red Bull garage of that of Pierre Gasly.

The French man, at the sound of her voice, immediately began to wipe his tears away from his face in an attempt to pretend like he was okay, but he couldn't. He knew that she would know.

He was rejoining her team, after all.

The Aoki woman crouched in front of the French boy as she got near to him, lifting his lowered head so that she could look him dead in the eyes.

"Don't let them see you cry, sweetheart. Come and cry in my office, then we will set out a plan where we prove Christian wrong. How does that sound?" Sakura gently patted the shoulder of the tearful boy, pulling him up to his feet.

Pierre could have sobbed as her arms wrapped around his frame, the woman hugging him as tightly as she could which provided him with some comfort which was completely needed.

The two of them were silent as they walked towards her garage, with the French boy noticing the glare that Sakura gave to the team boss of Red Bull as he walked towards them.

"Ah! Sakura, I was just coming to find you to let you know that Gasly will be rejoining your team." Christian Horner spoke as he came to a halt in front of the two.

"Yeah? Well I already know, so if you'll excuse us, Pierre and I have a battle plan to discuss that does not include you." Sakura pushed past the Horner man, whispering curses in Japanese underneath her breath which made the Gasly man crack a small smile.

Once the two of them were back in her office, Sakura pulled open a draw in her desk, pulling out a glass bottle and Pierre knew exactly what was in it.

Hibiki Whiskey.

The Aoki woman grabbed two glasses and poured the liquid in to them, handing one of the glasses to the boy who had stopped crying, though his eyes were still red.

"We'll start training again tomorrow, you need to de stress. Stress only makes people make mistakes, and we want you to be completely relaxed and happy when you beat Horner's Red Bull's." The Toro Rosso team boss patted his shoulder gently, seeing him gulp down the liquid that she had given him.

"As long as you don't drop me like they did." Pierre muttered, hearing a light scoff leave her lips.

"Oh please, I like to give drivers a chance before I even think about dropping them. I'm running a development team, I help drivers reach their full potential and then watch them kick ass."

"What if they tell you to drop somebody?"

"Then they can give me ten good reasons, until then, I'm running this team. I get rid of who I want, when I want. If they don't like it, they can sack me." Sakura gulped down her own drink before pulling out her phone.

"I'll call Anthoine so he can help you de stress today, tomorrow we will start with a punching bag with Horner's face on it." Sakura spoke whilst bringing her phone to her ear.

She liked Pierre's friend Anthoine, he was a very sweet boy who would always pop by to visit her and let her know that he would be cheering her team on, since he was so happy to see a woman running a Formula one team.

He always said it was 'about time.'

A knock on her office door sounded which made her turn her body around, the Aoki woman spinning herself around to see the young French man smiling at her from her doorway.

"Pierre." Anthoine spoke, gaining his best friend attention.

"Are you ready to prove them wrong?"

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PUNCH

Sakura gritted her teeth as she sent her fist colliding with the punch bag which was hanging in front of her.

Her jaw was clenched tightly to the point where it was almost painful, her eyes darkening by the second as the anger flooded in to her veins.

She kept imagining that it was her bosses in front of her, that it was them that she kept pummelling, because of the downright audacity that the two assholes had to not consult her on something that they were planning to do with one of her drivers.

Whilst there were no seats available with other teams in Formula one right now, Helmut Marko and Christian Horner wanted to get rid of Pierre since they deemed that with his nine years at Red Bull and AlphaTauri, he should be sent somewhere else because they thought they could get better results with a different driver.

She had only found out because she had accidentally recieved an email that was meant for Christian.

PUNCH

The Japanese woman grunted as the punch bag moved wildly, rotating her wrists so that she did not break them.

She would need her wrists to punch her bosses if they wanted to change her team without consulting her.

How dare they?

It was her team and her drivers and yet she had not even been consulted or asked about what she would think about them doing it. What was the point of her being the team principal if they would just undermine her and her authority?

PUNCH

If Pierre was better being sent to some other team, it should be her decision and she knew that. They were her drivers, her boys and she knew them better than her superiors did.

She had been there to pick up the pieces when they had last binned the Gasly man off as a piece of trash, and she knew that she was not going to let them do the same thing again.

Sakura Aoki was the AlphaTauri team boss.

Not them.

Just as she went to punch the punchbag once again, two hands clasped around it so that it stopped swinging with every punch, holding it in place.

She furrowed her eyebrows together in confusion at who would have possibly entered her garage to do such thing, though her question was answered almost immediately as they spoke up.

"Are you okay, Sakura?"

Toto Wolff asked as he held the punch bag that she was hitting, having never seen her so worked up and tense for as long as he had known her, when she had become the team principal.

"Not really." She grunted as she punched the bag once again, hearing a small grunt coming from the man behind the bag, obviously having not expected her to hit it as hard as she did.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Toto questioned gently, obviously not wanting to pressure her in to talking whilst she seemed to be in a mood to punch things.

Sakura suddenly stopped her attack on the punch bag, stepping sideways so that the Austrian man could see her sweat covered face and the irritation that was stitched on her skin.

"Do I look like an idiot to you?"

She spoke up without warning, noticing the look of shock that flooded on to the man's face, making him shake his head from side to side.

"No, of course not. Why would you think that you are an idiot?" The Wolff man asked in concern, having known how strong she was as a team boss and that she was far from being an idiot.

"Because Horner and Marko clearly think I am." Sakura clenched her fists, before she headed towards her office, knowing that the Mercedes team boss would follow her.

"Well, they're wrong."

"Would you try and overpower the guys at Williams to replace a driver and then not even tell them what you're planning?" Sakura questioned, slumping down in to her chair whilst grabbing her water bottle, gulping down the clear liquid that was inside of it.

Toto's eyes widened as he listened to her words, shaking his head from side to side, his brain already clicking with what it was that had gotten her so worked up.

"No, of course not. It is not my place, as I am not their team principal." Toto strongly shook his head from side to side, taking the place of sitting on her desk so that he was next to her.

The Austrian man placed his hand on top of hers to offer her a little bit of comfort since he could tell that it was what she needed.

"Do you think Pierre is better off at another team?" Sakura asked, a migraine forming in her head. "I want him to be successful because God he deserves that, but I don't want him to go to another team that is supposed to be better for him, only for him to be mistreated the way that Christian did, when he was at Red Bull."

The Mercedes team principal slowly nodded his head up and down as he listened to her internal battle, figuring that whilst she wanted the best for her driver, she wanted to make sure that he would not go through what he had already been through. She was trying to protect him.

"I think that deep down, you know what is right for him. You will do what you do best, and take your drivers best interests to heart and make sure that they can reach their full potential." Toto gave the woman a small smile.

"You are a great team principal Sakura, you are the future of the sport. You know your drivers better than Horner and better than Marko, and I trust that you will always do what is best for any driver that passes through your team."

Toto stood to his feet, offering his hand to the Aoki woman who hesitantly took it, glancing up at the tall man as he gently pulled her in to a hug, his chin resting on the top of her head.

"Thank you, Toto. I can always trust your opinion." The Japanese woman released a deep sigh as she was against his chest, her ears picking up his steady heartbeat which then helped her to slow down her own.

"Even though we are different teams, Sakura, you are always welcome to talk to me whenever you want or whenever you need confirmation or an opinion on something."

The Wolff man slowly pressed the softest of kiss to the forehead of the woman who was in his arms, butterflies erupting inside his stomach as he did so.

He knew that with her being the only female team boss that she would be feeling the pressure, and that she would be feeling like she had very few supporters, but he was definitely one of them.

Not many team principals could help get their team, a development team, to a grand prix win, but she had, when she helped Pierre to his very first win at the 2020 Italian Grand Prix.

Not many team principals would take their time to cook homemade food for race days for their drivers and their staff, as well as offer that food to other people too. Ferrari drivers, Mclaren drivers, Mercedes drivers, journalists, pundits, celebrity guests and even some fans who would pay a lot of money to walk through the paddock would be offered some of her homemade food.

She paid for the ingredients for the food out of her own wages, so that the teams money would be solely for the development of the cars.

That was the team principal that she was.

A great one, an honest one, a caring one, a protective one, a loving one.

That was the team principal that she was, the team principal that AlphaTauri needed, the team principal that people should be inspired by.

The future of the sport which was Formula One, relied on her and her methods, her mannerisms, her supportive nature, all of it. Without her and without that, Formula One would be doomed.

Sakura Aoki was the future of Formula One, and Toto Wolff absolutely loved it.

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A/N

Sorry for how long this took

What do you think?

Anyway, I hope that you all enjoy this chapter and I'll see you all soon for the next one,

I'm so proud of all of you, my loves

Love you all,

-RUBY